WWF

not wrestling.

i found this after being prompted to sign up through an email.

'get on board' is the latest campaign to reduce carbon emissions from the world wildlife fund. a huge paper boat was placed on London's south bank to draw peoples attention to the issue, and to the campaign, and to illustrate to politicians that they aren't doing enough about it. the boat is a visual representation of the scale of the problem and the amount of people who want to change it. giving meaning to the phrase 'get on board', it refers to the boat and to the campaign.

after being directed to the website in the email, i found it interesting.

there are sections which seem cut out, and three dimensional. i liked the idea of a colour showing through, as if the web page had been cut to reveal an underneath layer of paper.
there is a friendly and organic feeling about the site. the colours, typography and layout arent the best, but the use of origami and the cut out sections are playful and manage to illustrate a very serious problem in an interesting and clear way.

LA MACHINE

the planning that must have gone in to this amazes me, firstly how you'd make such a thing, and secondly how you surprise Liverpool with it one morning by mounting it to a building, then to find out that it can move with such precision. i thought it was a brilliant idea, to shock people in to talking, to provoke a reaction from people. the unmissable structure clinging to the side of Concourse House, in such a busy area of the city sparked mixed feelings, but that didn't matter, it wasn't permanent, it was all part of a bigger plan. the street theatre that followed after it had 'woken up' was fantastic. the live music, fire displays, water fountains and parade were exciting, and like nothing the city had ever seen before. any one complaining mustn't have an imagination, and were definitely the minority.
it comes from the same companies who built and arranged "the sultans elephant" parade in London 2006, and was commissioned by art company Artichoke. this was the biggest free theatre event to have ever hit London. Created by French theatrical magicians Royal De Luxe and built by La Machine, The Sultan’s Elephant featured a time-travelling mechanical elephant, and a giant girl, twenty feet high.

amazing.

surprising people, stunning people, telling an imaginative story, livening up the whole mood of a city with an intricate design for a fully functional sculpture.

i cant wait for their next move.

www.lamachine.co.uk or www.lamachine.fr
www.artichoke.uk.com

LONDON 2012

this is the most uninviting and harsh piece of design i have ever seen. considering it is intended to attract people to London and encourage people to take up sport, i don't think it delivers at all. created by Wolff Olins and at a cost of £400,000 it looks like blue peter have run a competition to design the logo, and a 12 year old Hadouken lover has won.

in my opinion it is behind the times. it is trying to follow fashion too closely, which by the time 2012 comes around, will be completely different.

LATITUDE

..a brilliant little festival.

well, i say little, it certainly is compared to Glastonbury, it probably started little and has grown in size very year since it was introduced, now its up there as the main alternative to Leeds and Reading. having said that, it hasn't lost its intimacy. you'd find it hard to get lost in crowds, and you can see bands from where ever you decide to stand at a stage. it is held in Suffolk every summer. the setting is lovely; there's a lake, a woods and endless fields.

in the morning, walking to the Eco friendly compost toilets, i didn't have to step over sick, or last nights drunks or old kebabs. oh god, it sounds like I'm getting old or turning in to some kind of vegan-hippy, or.. no wait.. maybe i never actually enjoyed anything about Leeds festival in the first place.

it was much more cultured. there was a book club, where you could sit on bean bags and comedians would come and read from their favourite books, and sing smiths songs. there was a film tent, showing a variety of old and new films, and a night of silent movies accompanied by a live orchestra filling in what could be the sound track.

it was so refreshing to go to a festival and enjoy artists like Joanna Newsome, Sigur Ros and Interpol without some yob shouting "who the fuck are these, come on Bazza, lets piss off and get shitfaced".

After having gone to Open'er festival in Poland last year, and Latitude in Suffolk this year, they have confirmed that i would rather spend my money on avoiding 'Bazza'.

NEW DESIGNERS

is an annual event held in London. after an invite from a product designer i know from Salford, it seemed a great opportunity to network and gain a few ideas. the New Designers event brings all disciplines of design together; furniture, graphic, fashion, interactive, illustration, animation, product, and spacial. there is also free talks you can attend from established designers. each area of design has a section inside a massive hall, and within each section various universities showcase their under graduate students' best work.

it was brilliant to walk around each section taking in new products and ideas. i haven't ever given any thought towards product design, so exploring with a product designer was really interesting. the designer of each product was on hand to demonstrate and to answer questions.

the most impressive products i saw tended to be very simple and innovative, yet elegant. for example, one girl had designed a range of chop sticks (a common household product that we usually only see as functional) which had cut out designs on the end of them. one pair were shaped to look like hands. another designer had reinvented the chip fork, cutting one into the shape of a fish. it annoyed me how simple these products were, they were still functioning in the way they were intended, yet had an edge to them that i hadn't ever seen before.

the graphic design section was a bit disappointing to be honest. the universities seem to have similar briefs to what we have been set, and the work didn't seem to be anything special. there was very little evidence of strong concepts, which interests me most. there was little photography and it seemed to be confused with illustration most of the time, the more "arty" unis displaying book illustrations and sketches.

coming away from New Designers, it surprised me how fascinated i was by the product design discipline. i realise now how important the concept behind a design is to me, and i'd rather something be very understated and clever, rather than brash, obvious and unthoughtful.

still.. i met a few people, came away with ideas and confirmed that i was passionate about graphics, making me more determined to further myself as a designer.